Serilog Beginner

Benjamin Fan

2020/3/6

Existing Solution

Logging Application Block (Microsoft Enterprise Library)
Log4net
NLog
Elmah

Yet Another Log Library

March to a different tune?
Newer is better?
Is the icon prettier?

Why Serilog

Structured log message
Many sinks
Flexible!

Structured Log Message

Simple, Scalar Values

var count = 456;
Log.Information("Retrieved {Count} records", count);

Booleans
Numerics
Strings
Temporals - DateTime, DateTimeOffset, TimeSpan
Others - Guid, Uri
Nullables - nullable versions of any of the types above

Structured Log Message

Collections

var fruit = new[] { "Apple", "Pear", "Orange" };
Log.Information("In my bowl I have {Fruit}", fruit);

Structured Log Message

Collections

var fruit = new Dictionary<string,int> {{ "Apple", 1}, { "Pear", 5 }};
Log.Information("In my bowl I have {Fruit}", fruit);

Structured Log Message

Objects

var position = new { Latitude = 25, Longitude = 134 };
Log.Logger.Warning("Processed {@Position}", position);

// 02:34:23 [AppId:{ Id = 1, Name = BenBen } WRN] Processed {"Latitude": 25, "Longitude": 134}

Many Sinks

There are so many sinks you can find here:

https://github.com/serilog/serilog/wiki/Provided-Sinks

Flexible

You can configuration settings via XML/JSON/Code
You can use sub-loggers
Sub-loggers + Sinks = Superpower

Reference

Code: https://github.com/RiceBen/BenSerilogNlog
Official repo: https://github.com/serilog/serilog
Official site: https://serilog.net/